


Running If You Call My Name

by ninja (omelet)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-17 10:23:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1383994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omelet/pseuds/ninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuffie, over the course of 13 years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dusk

**Author's Note:**

> Canon compliant up to KHII, or until the new game retcons anything.
> 
> Liberal use of flashbacks. Suffers from Cerberus Syndrome at times. Cursory knowledge of the game's storyline would be helpful.
> 
> Unbeta'd.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was 7 years old when she lost her home. She was 13 years old when she understood vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-Kingdom Hearts 1.

The hardest part was waking up.

She remembers, at age 7, collapsing on the bed of the Green Room for the first time. She remembers waking up and looking out the window, only to see that it was still dark outside. She remembers falling back asleep, then waking to darkness, again and again and again, until she panicked and asked Aerith why she kept sleeping through the day.

She remembers Aerith's sad smile, the dark rings around her green eyes, her hand on her head.

She grew up knowing that the sun would always rise. She came to Traverse Town and learned that she had to make her own light.

 

-

 

" _Hey_ , lay off! It's not there for you to ruffle, kupo!"

"Aw, but it's so cute and fluffy!"

Something clanks to a stop. "Yuffie."

Yuffie slowly turns around to see Squall, his arms crossed over his chest as he gives her one of those looks. She sighs and pouts, releasing the moogle's pom-pom to cross her arms too. "Squall," she returns with an exaggerated scowl of her own as the moogle scampers off. Squall rolls his eyes, sweeping his bangs out of his blue eyes.

"It's Leon," he says flatly before brushing past her to walk toward the cafe. 

Squall Leonhart, going by the name of Leon Leonhart these days, gunblade wielder and expert brooder. He makes vaguely angry expressions a lot and is generally a downer, but he has his moments. As much as Yuffie hates to admit it, he's the most competent fighter in Traverse Town, but she likes to think that she is a very, very close second.

He's a great big leather-wrapped enigma. Yuffie didn't really know him that well back home - she was closer to Aerith and her circle of friends - but since coming to Traverse Town, they've been forced to spend a lot of time together. They stay in the Green Room together, at first because it had a bigger bed than the Red Room and Yuffie moved in her sleep. Later, when they started going on patrol together, it ended up being more convenient for them since they both had to wake up early in the morning and they both end up collapsing and falling dead asleep after patrol anyway.

They're an odd pair, really. He's stoic and irritable mostly, she's happy and hyper mostly, and they spend more time bitching at each other than actually fighting, but they fight well together, so she supposes that's why Squall hasn't decided to murder her in her sleep yet.

She falls into step beside him, humming as her yellow scarf bounces along behind her. "Isn't it a bit early for you to be antagonizing the moogles?" Squall comments.

She grins cheekily. "Never too early for that." Skipping ahead, she falls into her usual chair at the usual table where Aerith is already seated. "Mornin', Aerith."

Aerith is the glue that keeps their ragtag group together, and in line. She's always calm and impossibly nice but she can hold her own if she needs to. Before coming to Traverse Town, she was like a big sister to Yuffie; Yuffie could tell her anything and she knew that Aerith wouldn't judge her or make fun of her. When they got here, she took care of all of them when they could hardly take care of themselves, Cid especially. Back then, it was nice to know that they didn't have to worry about starving in between fighting, sleeping, and just trying to survive.

"Yuffie, Leon," she greets the both of them with a smile, setting down her cup of tea. "Early start today?"

"Apparently," Squall answers dryly, sitting down across from Yuffie just as the waitress comes by with their usual breakfast order. "Don't think you'll be needing the coffee today, Yuffie."

Yuffie gasps as if offended, wrapping her fingers protectively around the hot cup of coffee as soon as it's set down in front of her. "How could you suggest such a thing? Coffee is my lifeblood." As if to prove her point, she immediately drains half of the cup, letting out a satisfied mouthful of steam. Aerith hides a smile behind her cup while Squall rolls his eyes again before starting in on his eggs.

They've been doing this for the past eight years, the three of them - and Cid, though he usually doesn't wake up early enough to make it to breakfast - sticking together ever since they arrived in Traverse Town. They see each other every day so there isn't much small talk to be made, aside from discussion about the new arrivals to to the town, both friendly and unfriendly.

"I noticed a new Heartless the other day," Yuffie tells them, words partially muffled by the toast in her mouth. "It's a new element one. Guess which element."

"Gravity?" Aerith guesses while Squall just glances up at her.

Yuffie makes a face, swallowing down her bite of toast. "Ugh, no, thank god." She mimes gagging. Having regular gravity imposed on her is already bad enough. "Cure. The heartless flits around and heals its buddies." She points her butter knife at Squall. "Might need to change some tactics around."

Squall just sighs before finishing up the last bites of his breakfast. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he decides, setting some munny on the table before he stands to leave. Yuffie quickly finishes up the rest of her own breakfast, washing it all down with the rest of her coffee. With a quick exchange of goodbyes and stay safes with Aerith, she runs after Squall and together, they make their way to Second District to start their rounds.

 

-

 

They all knew each other in passing, back home. Everyone knew her because of her father and his dojo, though Aerith knew her most because she babysat her. Cloud was Aerith's maybe boyfriend and he knew Squall the way every aspiring fighter in town knew each other. They knew Cid as the grumpy guy who would constantly yell at them for causing a ruckus in town, though he was known to the adults as a skilled and respectable engineer, albeit a little potty-mouthed.

Then, the Heartless came. Squall changed his name. Cloud left as soon as he arrived. Aerith didn't smile as much anymore. Cid stopped smoking. It was like they were strangers wearing familiar faces.

It took time for them to get used to everything, life in Traverse Town, being on their own. Six years later, they're still trying to figure things out what to do, though, that's been put on hold since the Heartless started appearing in Traverse Town. Yuffie supposes they should be grateful that at least Squall found it suitable to wallow in self-loathing here. He always preferred to be alone, even though he had friends back home. It was Squall who started going on patrols on his own, too. 

"You can't come with me," he had told her, as gently as he could back then - which was not very gentle at all -, when she tried to follow, her bag of shuriken in hand. "I'll be back soon."

So, she would stay, and she would wait. And she hated waiting.

Most of all, she hated that she couldn't fight, that she didn't know how to fight.

Her father had promised, when he gave her her shuriken on her sixth birthday, that he would train her when the time came. She remembers sitting on the sidelines of her father's dojo, watching him with his hands behind his back, correcting the postures of his students. She wanted to be as good as Godo, even better than him. She wanted to be the best ninja there was.

She doesn't remember much of the day the darkness came to her world, but she remembers her mother, her voice soothing in her ear, her father handing her the materia he used to summon his shuriken before urging her to run, Aerith finding her crying for them back at the dojo before being whisked away to Cid's ship. She remembers clutching the materia in her hands all the way to Traverse Town.

When she was alone, she would take out that materia and hold it in her hands; she wasn't strong enough to summon it. For a long time, she would just rub the smooth sphere with her heart in her throat, the faint glow all she had left of her father's promise.

It hurt to think about what she had lost. But she didn't want to let it hurt her anymore.

 

-

 

"Well, we're at the bridge," Yuffie remarks lightly when they're ambushed by Heartless in Third District. She slowly backs up toward Squall and draws her shuriken, her eyes tracking the quick movements of the Green Requiems. "Any ideas?"

"They hover higher than the others do," Squall replies, his gunblade already in hand. "You think you can handle them?"

They stop when their backs are inches away from one another. Yuffie grins, twirling her shuriken in her fingers. "Ye of little faith, Squall."

She hears a quiet huff. "It's Leon," Squall mutters before charging toward the Heartless.

 

-

 

She remembers, at age 13, Squall telling her "no".

"Why not?"

"Just because you can hit a target now doesn't mean you're ready to fight real enemies."

Yuffie let out an annoyed growl. "Well, that's because _someone_ won't let me train properly."

Squall just narrowed his eyes at her, his jaw clenched. Yuffie stared back unflinchingly. Over the years, she had been training herself, trying to get faster and stronger. Squall had even been slowly and passively helping her with her endeavor to learn how to fight, installing a target in the waterway for her to practice her shuriken with, occasionally spotting her throws, even bandaging up the nicks on her fingers. But he had never agreed to sparring with her or letting her practice on some of the weaker Heartless.

Because after all, she was just a kid.

Fine, she thought, finally spinning on her heel and leaving the waterway with noisy and angry splashes. She stomped down the alleyway toward the hotel, shaking off water, but she then stopped, glancing toward the door leading to Second District. They, meaning Squall, Aerith and even Cid, had told her explicitly to never go out at night alone.

_It's always night in Traverse Town_ , she thought humorlessly as she passed the hotel doors and pushed open the door to Second District. They couldn't expect her to stay holed up forever.

There weren't many people around. Yuffie guessed it was 'nighttime', meaning everyone was heading home to sleep, which also meant the Heartless were more likely to come. As she made her way to the middle of the square, she took out her shuriken, the sound of the scraping metal loud in the silence. For what Squall told her, the Heartless were like predators, singling out any stragglers. Crowded areas ran a risk of having skilled fighters in the midst of people and it was pointless for them to inhabit empty areas.

True to form, she heard the telltale sound of Heartless materializing behind her, like the air was being sucked out by a vacuum, and immediately twisted around, drawing her hand back. A twitchy Shadow emerged from an orb of darkness, its glowing yellow eyes roaming around before meeting her own. She felt her stomach lurch. These were the eyes of the creatures who took her home.

Her blood still running hot, she threw her shuriken at the Shadow, dead between its eyes, then another and another, until it melted away to reveal a shining heart. Without warning, three more Shadows appeared behind her. She jumped back to dodge their swipes, landing unsteady on her feet, but landing nonetheless, quickly flicking shuriken at the Shadows as soon as she recovered.

"C'mon!" She shouted as her fury grew, as they dissolved, one by one. She cut them down with ease, her shoes tapping steadily against the pavement as though she were dancing, dodging, somersaulting and jumping over the Heartless.

Surging with confidence, she heard another Heartless coming and immediately tossed a shuriken in the direction of the sound, only to hear it whistle through the empty air. Quickly turning around, she barely managed to jump out of the way of a fireball. Her heart stopped when she laid her eyes on the Heartless floating above her, as she heard two Soldiers clanking behind her.

The strange red Heartless whizzed backwards, out of her reach, and it shook, a small fireball gathering on top of its head. Turning around, she threw her shuriken at the Soldiers, only for the metal stars to glance off their helmets. Seeing that she was caught off guard, the Soldiers jumped toward her, their claws poised to attack, and she barely managed to dodge, crying out in pain when one of them managed to land a glancing hit on her shoulder. Before she could even look up, a fireball landed at her feet, nearly singeing her shoes. Desperate, she tried to dodge as much as she could and get some space between her and the Heartless, but she wasn't used to being on the receiving end of long-range attacks. What little she remembered from watching her father couldn't help her now. She thought of running, of calling for help, but just thinking of it made her sick.

_Not again._ She gritted her teeth, kicking the two Soldiers away. _I'm not going to run from them again._

"Yuffie!"

She turned toward the voice. In front of her, one of the Soldiers took advantage of the distraction and lunged toward her, its claw reaching straight for her chest. Before she knew it, Squall was standing between her and the Heartless, his sword stopping what would have been the killing blow.

"Leon!" Yuffie gasped. Squall cut the two Heartless down effortlessly before turning around to swipe at the fire casting Heartless, only for the Heartless to retreat, disappearing in a wisp of darkness. Scanning the surroundings for any more Heartless, he finally sheathed his weapon and turned to look at her, his eyes flashing.

"What were you thinking?" He demanded, livid as he loomed over her. "You could have been killed!"

She couldn't meet his eyes. She felt cold and numb, separate from herself, her hands shaking at her sides. She didn't answer, just looked at the ground and took deep breaths. 

"You're just a kid," he growled. "Don't go trying to play the hero, Yuffie. All it does is make trouble for everyone else."

Just a kid. She clenched her teeth. Just a troublesome kid.

Her eyes still pointed at the ground, she saw his boots turn away from her, heard him sigh with frustration. He couldn't even look at her. "Let's go. Aerith will heal you."

Her father's materia sat heavy in her pocket.

"They took our home from us."

He stopped in his tracks then. She finally raised her head to meet his eyes, her own burning as she tried not to cry. She was angry that she was trapped in this town of eternal night, that she couldn't go home anymore. 

She was angry at the Heartless, at herself for being so weak. 

Squall's eyes flickered before he said, quietly, "Then you should understand why I'm not letting you do this."

 

-

 

Cid's made his special stew for dinner. Once upon a time, that was reason enough to discreetly dump out your share before running over to the cafe, but over the years, he's refined it into something edible and actually quite tasty. The exact ingredients are a mystery, possibly even to Cid. Yuffie's seen him making it a few times and for the most part, he takes something from the pantry, sniffs it, and shrugs before dumping it into the pot.

"How did everything go?" Aerith asks, setting down a plate of steamed vegetables before taking her seat.

"It was a little rough," Yuffie replies brightly, digging into her food. "But they were no match for the Great Ninja Yuffie!"

"They were annoying, if anything," Squall retorts, glancing at Yuffie. "An obnoxious Heartless that heals its allies. Sounds familiar."

"Very funny, ha ha," Yuffie mock-laughs, waving her fork around before jabbing it in his direction. "See if I ever heal you again. Next time, I'm tossing a potion at your head and leaving it at that."

"Until you have a stockpile of potions, don't bite the hand that heals," Cid advises in between slurps.

Aerith smiles and Squall just rolls his eyes. 

 

-

 

She remembers, just a few weeks after what happened in Second District, being unable to sleep and overhearing Aerith whisper _Curaga_ , late one night, in the Red Room. _We worry about you, Leon_ , she had said softly. _We're in this together, you don't have to -_

_I do_ , he said. Yuffie, with her ear pressed against the door, heard him stand with a quiet grunt of pain. _I'm not going to let the Heartless take this place too._

The silence stretched. _Yuffie -_ , Aerith began hesitantly but Squall cut her off.

_She's not ready_ , he said firmly and Yuffie felt her blood run cold. _You saw her the other night after trying to fight the Heartless -_

_Yes, I remember_ , Aerith hissed sharply, her voice rising before quieting, softening. _Of course, I remember. She got hurt because she was alone out there. You get hurt because you fight alone. Maybe if you just -_

Yuffie stole away to bed before she could hear the end of the conversation, signified by the muffled sound of the door to the alleyway closing quietly a minute later. She felt her throat grow tight. Even though she knew they just wanted her to be safe, she hated it when they treated her like a kid, as if just because she was younger than them, she wasn't capable of feeling as helpless and useless as they did when their world was taken, as if she didn't worry about them as much as they did about her.

She buried her face into her blankets. She counted the minutes, counted the hours, waiting anxiously for Squall to return.

Some time around dawn, she heard something scurry into the room. Sitting up, she saw something in the darkness, a pair of small yellow flashes. "Aerith!" She shouted instinctively, bolting out of bed with her bag of shuriken already in hand. Tracking the eyes in the darkness, she rolled out of the way of the Heartless and flung her hand out to flick on the light, the pitch black body in clear view, before tossing three shuriken in quick succession, the Heartless dissolving away. Scrambling to her feet, she ran to the Red Room, bursting in just as Aerith took out the Heartless that had invaded her room with a Fira. "Aerith, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Aerith said breathlessly. "Something's going on. It's not like the Heartless to enter homes." She looked over Yuffie's shoulder and furrowed her brow. "Where's -"

She was interrupted by a cacophony of terrified yells and screams. The Heartless must have been all over the hotel. Aerith looked toward the door and Yuffie gripped her shuriken tight in her hands as doors slammed open, as footsteps pounded down the hall, the screams following the residents as they bolted for the exits.

Aerith bit her lip, glancing at the door then at Yuffie. "We have to do something," she finally said, rushing to her bedside drawer and grabbing several Ethers. "Yuffie," she put her hands on Yuffie's shoulders, "I need you to warn everyone and to tell them to head to First District, okay?"

Yuffie nodded shakily, her heart pounding. "What about -"

"Leon will be fine," Aerith said quickly, unconvincingly. She pressed a few Potions into Yuffie's hands before kneeling, her eyes concerned and faintly bright. "I'm sure he's fine. Just focus on getting to safety, Yuffie, please."

Yuffie swallowed the lump in her throat as Aerith hugged her, briefly but tightly, and turned around to clear out the hotel. She took a deep breath as the door slammed shut, tucking away the Potions before she headed for the alleyway.

The streets were crawling with Heartless. She jumped across the balconies quietly, the skittering of the Heartless below making her skin crawl. Silently dropping down into the alley, she cut through the Dalmatians' House, quickly checking if Pongo and Perdita were alright, to Second District, where people were already running for First District, the Heartless giving chase and cutting them off before they could reach the doors.

She could've made it. She was small and fast; it was easy enough to move through the crowd and make it to First District without a scratch. But her ears rang as cries for help filled the air, as hearts floated away right before her eyes.

Her fingers twitched toward the shuriken hanging on her belt. She wasn't ready for this, just like how she wasn't ready to grow up so fast. 

She wanted to live.

Near the doors, she saw Cid batting the Heartless away with his spear, yelling for everyone to get to First District.

She thought of Cid, Aerith, Squall, even Cloud. They were all out there, somewhere, fighting, even though they didn't know what for yet.

_Alone_ , she thought as she readied a shuriken in her hand. _We were alone._

Sprinting into the square, she tackled a Soldier in the midst of pouncing on a woman, jamming a shuriken into its back. "Run!" She shouted at the woman as the Heartless burst in a wisp of darkness, the woman stammering out a "thank you" before dashing off. Jumping back onto her feet, Yuffie took out another batch of weak Heartless, dodging the fire spells from the Red Nocturnes before knocking them out of the air with a precise throw. She allowed herself a grin; she had been practicing nonstop since her last run-in with them.

"Come and get it!" She shouted, beckoning the Heartless. Answering her taunt, the Heartless began to take notice of her, drawing their attention away from the defenseless townspeople to her. She fended them off for as long as she could, using up a potion every time she started getting worn down, trying to keep their attention until everyone could safely reach the doors. Gradually, their numbers began to dwindle and the Heartless started retreating, with some of the more capable townspeople returning to help get rid of any stragglers.

As the last Shadows disappeared, Yuffie took a knee, her breathing labored, but she refused to fall. Looking around, she saw no sign of Squall. Maybe he's already back in First District, she thought hopefully, but she knew better. There were people living in Third District too and if Squall wasn't here -

"Yuffie!" Yuffie turned around to Cid rushing toward her. "Jesus, kid, Aerith's gonna kill me when she sees you! Get your ass back to First District!"

Yuffie wobbled as she got to her feet, shaking her head when her vision went blurry. "Have you seen Leon?"

Cid stopped, chewing on his toothpick anxiously as he tried to recall. "No," he answered finally. "But he's a good fighter, I'm sure he's - hey, get back here!"

Without warning, Yuffie had turned and ran as fast as she could toward Third District.

Third District was always teeming with Heartless. It was the reason the door between Third and First District was locked. Still, a few people lived there, out of necessity, making them easy targets for the Heartless.

Pushing past the people still trickling out of Third District, she fell against the parapet overlooking the square and saw Squall struggling just to stand, surrounded by Heartless. His shoulders heaved with extertion as blood and sweat dripped down his skin. He was gripping his Gunblade so tightly his hands were shaking. Yuffie felt her heart ache, her eyes burn, her voice in her throat, her body itching to move. Squall needed help.

_She's not ready._

Yuffie took a few steps back.

_You get hurt because you're alone._

She ran forward and jumped.

 

-

 

Her mother used to teach her magic sometimes, though Yuffie never quite took to it. Magic required a certain concentration that she didn't possess; she was always more interested in learning how to throw shuriken and scale buildings. But she remembered one spell her mother tried to teach her.

"It helps to have a clear mind," her mother had told her, sitting her down on the tatami mats of their dojo. "Sometimes, all that is needed for healing is clarity of the mind and the soul."

Yuffie cocked her head. "How will that heal me when I get hurt?"

"You see, we all have darkness in our hearts, Yuffie," her mother continued. "But we don't have to let it keep us from healing."

Yuffie listened attentively and nodded, as she always did with her mother, though she rarely understood. Her mother held her hands and closed her eyes. Yuffie did the same.

"Clear your mind," she heard her mother say, her voice as calm as still water. A warmth began to grow in their linked hands, slowly spreading up her arms, to her chest, to her head. Her eyelids fluttered as her thoughts seemed to cease, her mind settling into a comforting silence. "Know your darkness and do not let it control you. Take all your despair and doubt and push them way. Believe, and strength will come, so long as you wish to use it for good."

 

-

 

_Clear Tranquil._ She landed firmly on the ground, her limbs suddenly strong and limber. In front of her, a green glow washed over Squall, his wounds healing over. He turned and saw her, his blue eyes wide. "Yuffie -"

Running toward him, Yuffie threw a shuriken at the Heartless moving in behind him, the Heartless fizzling away. "The Great Ninja Yuffie's here to help," she panted, stopping beside him and staring down the Heartless around them. "And she's not going to lose anyone today!"

Before Squall could respond, a small figure flew in from above, swinging what looked like a golden key at the Heartless. Yuffie watched as the figure eliminated the Heartless effortlessly until finally the Heartless retreated, fading back into the darkness.

They rose their weapons warily at the figure, who turned around and appeared to be -

A mouse?

"I mean you no harm!" The mouse said quickly, holding his hands up, his strange blade vanishing in a blink. 

Yuffie dropped her hands, though Squall continued to regard him suspiciously. "Who are you?" Squall demanded.

"I'm Mickey Mouse." When neither of them reacted, Mickey added, "I've been traveling to different worlds, looking for a way to stop the Heartless."

It was then when Squall finally lowered his weapon, exchanging a look with Yuffie.

After doing one more sweep of the town, they returned to the hotel, where Mickey told them about the Heartless and Ansem the Wise. He told them about the Keyholes and Maleficent, about the Keyblade wielder who was to come. They listened, the four of them, realizing the weight of each word.

"So until the Keyblade wielder comes," Squall said after a long silence, "the worlds will continue to disappear."

"And there's nothing we can do about it?" Aerith asked quietly. 

Mickey smiled sadly. "What you're doing here is good. Giving these people a safe haven, that's what they need."

While Squall, Aerith and Cid were busy talking to Mickey about finding out more about the Keyholes, Yuffie slipped out to the balcony of the Green Room, listening to the water rushing through the waterway. 

She didn't need to listen to the rest. The worlds were disappearing and all they could do was wait for someone to come and stop the Heartless. 

Somehow, she felt even more helpless than before.

Before she knew it, she was jerking awake, bolting upright in the uncomfortable metal chair, having fallen asleep with her head on the small table. Something slid off her shoulders; it was Squall's jacket. Beside her was Mickey, standing with his hands behind his back, looking up at the sky.

"You were very brave today," Mickey said.

Yuffie rubbed her eyes and managed a small smile. "I was just trying to help. I couldn't do much."

"You saved a lot of people," Mickey pointed out. "And you saved your friend, Leon."

Yuffie nearly snorted when her first instinct was to mutter "It's Squall". "He ends up saving me, most of the time," she said instead with a laugh. Mickey was quiet beside her, as if waiting for her to speak. She bowed her head. "I wish I could be stronger."

"Y'know," Yuffie looked at Mickey, who was staring up at the sky once more, his expression melancholy, "I've traveled to all kinds of places and met many strong and brave people. Do you know what I learned?" He turned to look at her and smiled. "Their greatest strength came to them when they were fighting for the people they care about."

With that, Mickey bid her goodnight. Yuffie watched the door close behind her before looking up at the sky, the stars flashing like fireflies. 

She flexed her hands and stretched her arms and legs, noticing that they didn't ache anymore. In front of her was a still warm cup of hot chocolate. Sighing softly, she pulled her legs to her chest and tugged Squall's jacket tight around herself.

When she returned to the waterway to train the next day, she nearly got smacked in the face when a judo stick was thrown at her by Squall, who tapped his own against his shoulder.

"Don't make me regret it," he had said when she grinned broadly, though, he was smiling a little too.

 

-

 

Not many people are willing to venture through the Gizmo Shop but she is. She likes to stand on the edge of the roof at the end of the day, her arms outstretched, feeling the wind through her fingers. This is her spot, just like how the waterway is Squall's, the Red Room Aerith's, the Accessory Shop Cid's, and it makes her feel powerful, standing at the top of the town.

She looks up at the sky, a blanket of darkness spattered with bright stars. They've been fighting and waiting for a long time, hoping for a way to one day return home. There is no time for them to rest, no time for them to break down; there are people relying on them to protect them here in Traverse Town, just as they are relying on the Keyblade wielder to stop the Heartless and restore the worlds. It's hard, waiting, but they're doing what they can here. 

Some days, she feels helpless, like an insignificant speck in a wide universe. Some days, she feels angry, like she did on that day in Second District. Some days, she wonders if all of this is even worth it. 

But tonight, reaching up to the sky, the stars fading away between her fingers, she just closes her eyes and breathes, curling her hands into fists. 

_Know your darkness. Push it away. Believe in your strength and you will find the right path._


	2. Twilight I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuffie is 16 years old when she remembers.

Squall has murdered the Keyblade wielder.

"He fainted," Squall intones, giving her look like he knows exactly what she was thinking. Walking over to the spiky-haired kid, Squall picks him up off the ground and hoists him up onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, grabbing the Keyblade before heading to the hotel. Yuffie walks with him, squinting at him suspiciously before leaning back a little to confirm that Keyblade wielder is indeed breathing.

"Haven't seen this many Heartless since the king came here," Yuffie says, casting a wary glance at the Keyblade, remembering the last time it, or rather, a variation of it, was here. They were much more prepared this time around; the bell of the Gizmo Shop has been turned into a makeshift siren, rung in the event that an abnormal amount of Heartless start appearing. According to the king, the Heartless are attracted to the power exuded by the Keyblade when it's in the hands of its wielder, so Squall went to find the Keyblade wielder while the rest of them were charged with making sure the townspeople were off the streets. 

Though, Yuffie didn't know that Squall was planning on knocking him out.

"Yeah. It's a good thing I got to him in time. Kid barely knows how to handle the Keyblade."

"Defintely not what we were expecting," Yuffie agrees, scratching her head as she backs into the hotel door, pushing it open for Squall. The kid's head bangs against the door as Squall passes through; it does not illicit a response. "Is he really supposed to be the one who's going to defeat the Heartless and restore the worlds?"

"That's what the king says," Squall replies as they enter the Green Room. He flops the kid down on the bed and sets the Keyblade against the nightstand before leaning back against the Red Room door, presumably to wait for him to wake up. Yuffie takes that as her cue to retreat to her own position, falling back in the chair by the table and propping her feet up.

It's a tense silence. Dramatic, even. She taps her cheek, glancing at Squall, who has his eyes closed in what might look like deep contemplation but is most likely perplexed confusion, before turning back to the boy, pursing her lips as she lets out a long, thoughtful "hmmmmmm". 

"I like him," she decides with conviction after a few minutes pass.

Squall just looks at her.

"He seems like a real go-getter, y'know?" Yuffie continues, punching the air with her fist. "We need a go-getter."

"How did you even get that impression? He's _unconscious_."

She waves her hand dismissively. "Pfft. Details."

Squall sighs, a little frustrated, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I just wish we had someone who seemed a little more...reliable."

Yuffie can't disagree with that. Standing, she paces idly before stepping over to the nightstand. After a brief moment, she picks up the Keyblade and gives it a twirl. Surprisingly, it feels just like a regular sword. A few moments later though, it blinks out of her hand and back to its place against the nightstand. "Well," Yuffie starts decisively, allowing herself a brief grin before setting her hands on her hips and glancing back at Squall, "I believe in him."

He raises an eyebrow. "Really," he says incredulously.

Yuffie shrugs and smiles. "If I don't, what else do I have?"

Their savior lets out a loud snort, presumably about to come back to consciousness. Squall sighs, probably deeply worried about their fate.

 

-

 

With Sora out there, they start getting antsy. It's one thing to wait for the Keyblade wielder to arrive, but it's another to wait, knowing that one day they get to go home. They wait out their days patrolling, training, making extra trips to the Coliseum and in between the usual stuff, they help Sora and the gang on their journey as much as they can. Despite his initial reservations, Squall - being the big softy he is - gives Sora his lucky rock he found on one of his patrols, Cid tricks out their Gummi ship, Aerith imparts her wisdom and Yuffie? Well, she provides moral support.

"Better luck next time," Yuffie says in a sing-song voice, helping Donald up after soundly beating the trio in the Pegasus Cup. Donald glares darkly at her and quacks something under his breath. 

Sora stands, rubbing his head. "Aw, can't you guys cut us some slack?"

"If you can't beat us," Squall says, tapping his gunblade against his shoulder, "how can you expect to beat Maleficent?"

"He's got a point," Goofy agrees. Donald whacks him with his staff.

"Don't worry, guys," Yuffie says brightly, casting Clear Tranquil over the party. "If anyone can do it, it's you guys.

Sora sighs with relief as the energy they drained returns to him. "Maybe if you teach us that spell, we'll win." 

"Nope!" Yuffie sticks her tongue out. "Only the Great Ninja Yuffie can use this spell."

They part, with Sora promising to definitely beat them next time. Yuffie lets out a chuckle, waving them goodbye before shaking her head. They're a fun bunch.

"He was close this time," Squall notes with a tinge of pride in his voice as they walk back to their Gummi ship.

Yuffie grins, nudging him with her elbow. "I knew you were warming up to him."

Squall doesn't comment, his only response being a huff and a scowl, but she knows that Squall is on the way to believing in Sora too.

 

-

 

She's said it before. Squall's a mystery and all, but one thing's for sure; he's also a great big bag of fluffy feelings.

She brings it up, mostly because lately she's been noticing that people have started to moon over Squall everywhere they go. It's a little weird, seeing people ogle at Squall when he walks by. She supposes she understands, though. After all, he's no longer the teenage kid who ran around with a gunblade too big for him; now he's a strong, handsome, capable 25 year old man who defends the town from the Heartless, or so they say around town (And yes, she's a little bitter that she's not included in this bit of town gossip. Not even as a sidekick!). Sure, his icy blue eyes are exceptionally striking under his long brown (surprisingly soft, she learned after a few accidental brushes when waking up in the morning) hair and he's got muscles on his muscles and he's got that cool bad boy image (even though he's the biggest goody two shoes ever). But she thinks that they really miss the whole point because they haven't seen Squall with bed head (it's hysterical). They haven't seen him flustered when caught petting a stray kitten on the street. Sometimes, he does something nice, like save someone's life. He even goes out of his way to find homes for new arrivals, literally taking his gummi ship out to retrieve people who have lost their worlds and bringing them back to Traverse Town. Yuffie once joked that he should have just become a real estate agent. 

"Leonhart Realty," she had said, collapsing in a fit of giggles when Squall tried to shoot her a threatening glare.

So, to be honest, she can see the charm, all of it. It's really not much of a surprise that over the years, she's grown fond of the grumpy loser-ish asshole as a person; on a good day, she'd go as far to say that he's her best friend, next to Aerith. Squall's not one to mince words, which she appreciates now that she's older, and he's rarely selfish, silence being the only luxury he's willing to demand, from Yuffie, mostly. He's mostly cold, detached, impatient and sometimes even downright mean, but when it comes down to it, he's still a person, and an extraordinarily kind one, at that.

"Sora really has been looking for the puppies, huh?" Yuffie mentions casually, coming across Squall during one of her visits to the Dalmatians' House. She remembers when Squall first brought them to their new home, how he used to take time to stand in front of the house back when Pongo and Perdita were alone, making sure the Heartless stay out. She used to keep them company when she could too, talking to them and assuring them that their puppies would be home soon.

"Yeah, I guess," he says, equally casual, kneeling to scratch behind the ear of one of the puppies. "Since he's traveling, he might as well."

Yuffie smirks. She knows that he's happy that Sora listened to his request to look for the dalmatians. "You really are cute sometimes."

His cheek suspiciously pink, Squall glares, though it's diminished by the puppies crawling all over him. "Shut up."

 

-

 

Sora beats them.

Squall crosses his arms over his chest with a frown on his face but he's otherwise a graceful loser, giving Sora a gruff congratulations. Yuffie, on the other hand, is not. She tosses a fit and pinches Sora's sheepish face, demanding that he come back for a rematch, one on one.

Secretly though, they're both pleased as they watch the three winners go, off to lock another Keyhole in another faraway place. One day, Yuffie believes, Sora's going to be heading toward their old home.

"Until then, we should keep training," Yuffie exclaims, holding out her arms to block Squall from the Coliseum exit. "We can't let Sora do all the work!"

Squall looks hard-pressed to agree.

 

-

 

They've been taking trips to the Coliseum since she was fourteen. It's a way to pass the time when there's a lull in Heartless activity and it's good training too, faster than running around Traverse Town picking fights with Heartless, but tougher because of the stronger Heartless and enclosed space. It's taken a while for them to get used to fighting with each other, though it was harder for Squall. He wasn't used to having someone fight alongside him. Unlike her, Squall learned how to fight properly; he was taught to rely on only himself when he fought, knowing close range, long range, aerial attacks, even some magic. 

Needless to say, he's had his fair share of scoldings from Aerith for elbowing Yuffie one too many times during a battle.

When they just started fighting together, more often than not, he would finish off her enemies before she could, shooting off fireballs before her shurikens even left her hands. He would heal himself even though she knew he knew she could heal the both of them at the same time. At first, she thought that he didn't trust her.

"You nearly smacked me in the head again!"

Squall rubbed his scar. "It wasn't on purpose," he said defensively, like that was the problem.

"I know it wasn't," though to be honest, she wasn't completely sure, "because you were aiming for the Blue Rhapsody, which was no longer there because I had already gotten rid of it."

Yuffie, age 14, glared up at Squall, who had the nerve to look annoyed. She almost wanted to hit him in the head with her weapon.

"Look," she sighed, "I know you weren't too happy about having me fight with you, but tough luck. And I'm sorry you think I'm not good enough -"

"I don't think that."

Yuffie blinked at him. Squall just looked away, clearly not about to explain himself. 

She though of their training sessions. He was the one who taught her the basics, taught her how a fighter moved, how a fighter thought. He was the one who made her practice until she did everything perfectly.

"Even the most experienced warrior can slip up," he had told her after swiping her off of her feet. "And it can be the difference between life and death. That's the risk they take every time they fight."

He had held a hand out to her, pulling to her feet. She remembered the conflicted look in his eyes before it quickly disappeared. "That's why we train. We do everything we can to avoid that fatal mistake."

She sighed, stepping forward until she was just a foot away from him. 

"Then trust me," she had said firmly, forcing him to meet her gaze. "Trust that I'm always going to do my best. I don't need you to fight my battles. I just need you to be there when my best isn't enough."

"Hey, over here!" Yuffie shouts, two years later, waving her arms frantically. The Green Requiems turn toward her and Squall cuts them down while they're distracted. She follows up with three shurikens, hitting the three Yellow Operas hovering over Squall's shoulders, as he focuses on blocking hits from the Pot Spiders.

"Ease up!" She says, healing herself and Squall before she starts kicking the Pot Spiders apart, giving Squall some breathing room. With just a few more slashes, the Heartless are defeated. Yuffie pumps her fist in the air and Squall lets her have her moment of celebration, sharing a small smile with her before tossing a potion into her hands.

It's taken a few hard losses at the Coliseum and a couple rough tumbles during patrols, but he's learning that she can hold her own and she can protect him too.

 

-

 

The Hades Cup trials are rough. They make it through the first couple of rounds without much difficulty. It's when one round starts off with a Behemoth marching onto the field when Yuffie starts tugging nervously at her scarf.

"How - do they - even have - these things?" Yuffie pants, doubled over, after the 37th round. Even Squall, who's leaning against his gunblade for support, is feeling the heat. She downs an ether, getting the boost she needs to top them off with a Clear Tranquil. 

"You guys fight well."

Yuffie blinks, whipping around to see Cloud, in the flesh.

For a moment, she doesn't know what to do. She looks at the red cape on his shoulders, the golden gauntlet on his arm, and her heart clenches and every instinct tells her to run.

And she does. 

"Cloud!" She wails as she jumps straight at him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Eventually, she lets go, smiling as she reaches up to pinch his cheeks. "What's this serious face, you big dork?"

Cloud lightly smacks her hands away, rubbing his cheeks. "Nice seeing you too, Yuffie," he says as he softens his expression, looking a little more like the dumb kid who used to enable her bad ideas, ruffling her hair before nodding over at Squall over his shoulder. "Squall."

"It's Leon now."

Cloud looks at Yuffie, his eyebrow arched, and she sighs dramatically with a grim shake of her head. "Yeah, I know," she says miserably. Squall does not appreciate it.

"So when did you start fighting, small fry?" Cloud asks with a wry grin. Yuffie politely does not mention the fact that he would have known if he didn't go running off to apparently start fighting in tournaments.

"Didn't I always say I would be the greatest ninja around?" Yuffie puffs her chest out. "I've been training since we came to Traverse Town and I help Leon on patrols."

"Ah, so he's been training you?" Cloud says, glancing at Squall like he's seeing him in a new light. "Never thought you'd end up having a partner."

Partners. Huh. She never thought of it that way. Beside her, Squall shrugs. "Things change."

"Well," Cloud says when the bell rings, signaling for the next round to start, "I'm looking forward to fighting with you guys."

As always, Squall and Cloud are evenly matched. Cloud absolutely insists that it was an unfair fight, the only reason he lost being that there was a ninja flitting around, healing Squall and tossing shurikens at Cloud's face while taunting him.

They lose a couple rounds later - Yuffie goes and blames Cloud right back for their own loss - , but afterwards, they sit in the stands with Cloud, catching up, and Squall honest to god smiles a little and upon seeing it, Yuffie nearly has a heart attack.

 

-

 

With Sora picking up their patrol duty every time he returns to town for supplies and Gummi upgrades, they end up having more time on their hands. While Squall uses it to go train in the Waterway, she finds her thoughts drifting toward home, now that the possibility of returning is finally within reach. She thinks of what it would be like to go back home, to have a home again.

She can't imagine it.

They really don't talk about the past, not often. Sometimes Cid will reminisce like the old man he is or, rarely, Aerith will mention someone's name, like everyone's supposed to know who he's talking about, and her mind just draws a blank. She nods along with them, looking sad like the rest of them, but in her head, she's asking why it's sad, scrambling to remember something, anything, but all that comes to mind are foggy images and faceless people. When she thinks of home, she doesn't think of a place anymore. In its place is a phantom pain, a reminder of what they lost.

She remembers, one night, going through her head. Aerith's ribbon. Cloud's red cape. Cid's toothpick. She knows why all of those are there because they're still around for her to remember. She knows Aerith's favorite flower, the name of Cid's first ship, even the fact that Cloud used to babysit her when Aerith was too busy. 

Squall.

She thinks of Squall, the scar on his face, the wings on his back, and she can't remember why they're there. 

"We've all forgotten things about our past," Aerith once told her, sitting in front of the mirror in the Red Room as she brushed out her long brown hair.

Yuffie couldn't remember what her town looked like, who her neighbors were, where she went to school. "It sucks," she said instead, the words muffled as she lied face down on Aerith's bed.

"It was a long time ago." 

Yuffie rolled onto her back and closed her eyes. Behind her eyelids, she saw a sky of swirling darkness. "And sometimes we forget the things that hurt us."

She heard Aerith put her brush down, sighing softly. "That's right."

She wishes she could remember, even if it did hurt. All she knows for sure is that they share the same past that led them here, to Traverse Town. For now, maybe that's enough.

 

-

 

Hollow Bastion. The name feels unfamiliar on her tongue.

The suitcase clicks shut and Yuffie lets out a satisfied huff. "I think that's the last of it," she says to herself, looking around the mostly bare hotel room.

Sora's on his way there now. When he seals the keyhole, they won't be able to travel between worlds, not even with the gummi ships.

She glances toward the open door, the light spilling outside onto the balcony. Stepping outside into the cool night air, she places her hands on the parapet, letting out a quiet sigh.

She's going home.

After a brief glance toward the waterway, she turns around and looks above her. The tip of a familiar shoe pokes out from the edge of the roof. Quirking a grin, she jumps and pulls herself up on the roof to see Squall lying down on the shingles, his hands behind his head.

"Done packing?" He asks, opening an eye to look at her as she carefully walks over to him and sits down beside him, stretching her legs out.

"Just about," she says with a long drawn out sigh. "I never knew I had this much stuff."

Squall scoffs. "Tell me about it." She catches the corner of a smirk when she turns to glare at him.

They settle in a comfortable silence, like they always do. They used to do this sometimes after a long day, clambering up to the roof and just lying there, looking up at the night sky. Most of the time, Squall would be quiet and sometimes even Yuffie would be too, but most of the time, she would talk about anything and everything, just for the sake of filling the silence. Though, she's come to learn to appreciate the value of silence. Yuffie lays back and gazes up at the blinking stars.

"Do you think you're going to miss this place?" 

Squall casts her a sidelong glance. 

This is where she grew up, where she learned to fight, where she learned the value of friendship. It's even a little like them, Traverse Town, made up of bits and pieces from different places, coming together to form a world. It feels like home.

"Yeah," Squall replies softly and she breathes a little easier.

She looks up at the eternal night sky and she thinks she's going to miss it one day.

 

-

 

They disembark at Rising Falls after the silent trip on Squall's gummi ship. Yuffie gazes at the rising waters, her breath catching in her throat. 

_Yuffie, be careful -_

_\- don't worry, the water will pick me up if I fall!_

"Yuffie."

Yuffie blinks, her eyes meeting Squall's. Aerith looks at her with concern.

"You ready?" He says, his Gunblade drawn. "Sora's going to seal the Keyhole soon."

Numbly, she draws her shuriken. "Home sweet home," she manages, staring up at the twisted castle.

 

-

 

"I'm looking for something," Cloud had told her quietly, before she and Squall left to return home after the Hades Cup trials. "There's something that I have to face, on my own."

Yuffie stopped, Squall still walking ahead of them. There was a time when she believed that Cloud would come back, when she wished she could find him and ask him why he left.

"That's why I can't go back," he said, like an apology. "I -"

"I know," Yuffie said, her voice soft and weary, her gaze fixed on Squall's back. "We've all got something we have to face."

 

-

 

Ansem the Wise used to let them into his castle.

Yuffie remembers the Library, though she remembers playing with the shifting bookshelves and getting stuck on top of them more than actually reading books. Ansem had allowed the citizens free entry into the castle; he was like a father to all of them, sharing his home with anyone who wanted to enter.

While Squall and Aerith settle down in the Library and set on finding information in the dusty books, Yuffie finds herself wandering. She walks through the Entrance Hall, her fingers gliding across the smooth wooden banisters, so unlike the metal railings of Traverse Town. Coming across the lift stop, she gazes up toward the ceiling, light raining down through the stained glass. When she was four, she got lost here, touching the strange, glowing, prickly things until she realized that she had no idea where she was anymore. This time though, she knows where she's going.

Eventually, she finds herself pushing open the doors to the castle chapel. With Maleficent gone, the fires no longer burn an ominous green, no longer burn at all. The castle chapel is just quiet, hollow like the rest of the castle. Slowly walking up the aisle, she stops in the center.

She stood here, once. She stood here and marveled at the stained glass, twirling around in the pretty colored light it cast on the cold stone ground. She doesn't remember why or when she was here, but she remembers laughing and she remembers her mother, dancing with her.

Swallowing down the lump in her throat, she breathes and retreats.

The castle gardens are neglected, but she closes her eyes and the memory comes to her, neatly trimmed hedges and bright blooming flowers, a sparkling fountain in the middle of the square. She used to play around here, running around the mazes, playing tag with the other kids and hide and seek with Aerith. She walks under broken marble archways and she remembers, slowly, the names of the places in the distance, the people that once walked along these cracked pathways.

Each step feels heavier, as if the burden of the past has finally caught up with her, and she hates it, she hates being bogged down, hates the feeling of being trapped, and every instinct is telling her _run or you die_ -

But she forces herself to walk and to remember.

-

_It's Leon._

Yuffie, age 8, sat on the edge of the Gizmo Shop's roof, her knees pulled up to her chest.

_Squall is gone._

She hugged her knees tighter. Gone. Just like how her parents were gone, how her home was gone.

Except he wasn't gone. He was right there, with Squall's blue eyes and Squall's brown hair and Squall's scar, wearing Squall's clothes and speaking with Squall's voice -

Squall wasn't gone. He was right there in front of her. She didn't understand why everyone looked sad and nodded like it made sense, like he was really gone.

Behind her, the rickety ladder clattered. She stared resolutely forward as footsteps neared, stopping beside her.

"Thought you'd be here."

Yuffie didn't respond.

"Aerith's worried about you."

She sniffed and turned her head, pressing her cheek against her knee. Squall sighed before sitting down beside her, one foot dangling and the other set against the edge. For a while, they just listened to the bustling sounds of the townspeople going about their day hovering below them. Yuffie wrinkled her nose. It was nighttime and people were up and about, doing daytime stuff like shopping. It didn't make any sense. Lots of things weren't making sense these days.

"Why don't you like your name anymore?" Yuffie finally asked, setting her chin between her knees, not willing to look at Squall.

For a while, Squall was silent and Yuffie thought that maybe it had all been a great big joke. "Do you remember when you got hurt climbing the tree in front of Aerith's house?"

She nodded.

"And do you remember how you promised you wouldn't do it again, but you went and climbed the castle wall a month later?"

She nodded again.

"You forgot how much it hurt, right?" Squall said. "You were just thinking of how much you liked climbing stuff and forgot how much it hurt whenever you fell."

Yuffie hummed thoughtfully. "I guess."

"It's natural," Squall explained. "After all, if we always remember how much something hurts us, we would be too afraid to do anything."

Yuffie frowned. "So how is your name hurting you?"

"It reminds me of something from the past," he told her.

Looking down at her feet, she tapped them together. "You mean when our world was taken." She didn't like the way they didn't like to talk about it.

Squall bowed his head. "It reminds me of that day, when I couldn't protect anyone, when Squall couldn't protect anyone," he said, bitter. "But I will."

Yuffie didn't understand then, what it meant to shed a name. But she nodded, like she always did when she didn't understand, because one day she would and that day, she would tell him that he was wrong all along. Climbing to her feet, she patted her clothes down, straightened out her hair. Squall was already standing, waiting for her.

"It hurts to remember, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't." Yuffie looked at him. "Right?"

Squall looked at her, maybe a little surprised, before offering her a small smile. "Yeah. But just for now, we have to forget, so we can keep going."

 

-

 

Eventually, her feet carry her to Rising Falls and she finds that she is not alone.

"I thought you were at the Library," she finds herself saying to Squall's back.

Squall lifts his head but doesn't look at her. "That was five hours ago."

Yuffie hadn't realized that so much time had already passed. She looks up at the sky, the sunlight pricking her eyes, accustomed to the constant night of Traverse Town.

"It doesn't feel like home."

Yuffie bows her head and nods, even though Squall can't see. "It doesn't," she agrees quietly. They're supposed to be happy or relieved, but Yuffie looks at the slope of Squall's back, her own hazy reflection in the ice, and all she sees is fatigue. "But hey, we knew that things weren't going to be the same when we came back."

"Nine years," is all he says, almost reverent.

Eleven years ago, she fell into Rising Falls and Cloud had to fish her out. Ten years ago, she was given her first set of shuriken. "Nine years," she echoes and there's no way she can say it without feeling its weight. Nine years ago, she had forgotten everything.

Eight years ago, when all she had left of Squall was his name, she promised that she would remember, no matter how much it hurt.

"Nine years is a long time."

_It reminds me of that day, when I couldn't protect anyone, when Squall couldn't protect anyone._

Anyone.

Someone.

It's there, standing in the light of Hollow Bastion for the first time in nine years, where she remembers a girl with long dark hair and a kind smile, white wings stitched on the back of her duster.

It's then, looking at Squall, the pain written in the shadows of his face, when she realizes that it wasn't his name he was trying to forget.

"We're finally home." She stands fast. "We can keep waiting."

Squall turns fully toward her, his eyes wide, and all she lets him see is her smile.

-

Aerith wakes at twilight, when the light is just barely shining into the library. They all decided to make the libary their temporary base, uneasy about the state of the rest of the castle. Rubbing her eyes, she sits up and looks over. Leon is still asleep in his bedroll, his arm thrown over his eyes. Blinking, she peers over Leon, her eyes falling upon an empty rumpled sleeping bag.

Quietly standing, she looks around the bookshelves, moving toward the windows. The light grows brighter, the sky a dusty blue as the sun glows white just on the horizon. At the bottom of the stairs is Yuffie still clad in her sleeping clothes, standing in front of the windows, her hand pressed against the glass.

Aerith pauses, wrapping her arms around herself, her eyes fixed on Yuffie's silhouette. 

Yuffie has always been extraordinarily strong, carrying her immense sadness in her heart with a smile. She was just a child when she lost her home, not old enough to remember, to put names and faces to her sadness, until now. Now, she's out of the darkness, walking in the light of her old home, and she's remembering exactly what was lost.

She's remembering exactly who was lost.

"Aerith."

Aerith snaps out of her thoughts and sees Yuffie looking back at her, her violet eyes bright as she grins.

"I'm thinking of a name."

She walks toward Yuffie, stopping beside her. "Oh?"

"A name for us," she continues excitedly, turning back to look out the window. "Our group! Something nice and official sounding. Maybe we'll even have cards! So when people - ," her voice hitches, " - start coming back, they'll be like 'Who're you?' and we'll flash our cards and be all like -," she points two fingers at Aerith sharply, grinning, " - y'know?" 

Aerith smiles faintly, watching Yuffie go on. She doesn't know if it's because it's been so long since they've seen the sunlight but even in the twilight, she can see the faint tear streaks on her cheeks. Her throat tightens upon seeing them; she hasn't seen Yuffie cry since they arrived at Traverse Town, all those years ago.

Yuffie lets out a harsh sigh, setting her hands on her hips before turning to look at Aerith. "I'm thinking 'Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee'. What do you think? Too boring, too cheesy? Not flashy enough?"

When Aerith doesn't respond immediately, Yuffie cocks her head before frowning, tapping her lip with her finger.

"Yeah, maybe it's a little too much -"

"I like it."

They both turn around to see Leon, who yawns as he runs his hand through his disheveled hair. Yuffie doesn't miss a beat.

"Well, if Leon likes it, then we've gotta go with it," she quips wryly, sharing a look with Aerith as Leon leans against the staircase beside Yuffie. 

Aerith knows that Yuffie has always been one to move forward. So she takes a deep breath and puts on a smile, setting her hand on Yuffie's shoulder. "The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee," she says, her voice decisive and hopeful, as they wait to meet the new dawn together.

 _One step at a time_ , she tells herself, squeezing Yuffie's shoulder. _We still have a lot of work to do._


	3. Twilight II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuffie is 17 years old when she fights.

"Hey, watch it!"

The tail of a long black bandanna bounces through the Restoration Site, ducking under wooden beams and sailing over half-completed walls. "Sorry, very important ninja coming through!"

Fast and lithe, she runs up an angled metal girder at full speed, the girder vibrating with heavy thunks with each sure step, and jumps over the clunky construction vehicles blocking the pathway instead waiting for them to pass. She grins as she lands clean on her feet, kicking up dirt as she pushes off and starts off running again.

Wooden frames of half-completed homes fly past as she runs, occasionally slowing down to deliver the foremen instructions before setting off again. Skidding to a stop in the middle of the site, Yuffie surveys the intersection while taking a moment to rest, setting her hands on her knees. "Hey," she calls, "has anyone seen Leon?"

One of the workers jabs his thumb down the path. "He's finishing up the inn."

"Thanks!" She tosses breathlessly over her shoulder, already dashing away.

In the distance, she sees the modest inn, a three story building, nearly completed. At the ground floor is Cid, who's poring over the blueprints like it holds the meaning of life.

"Hey, didn't know you were back!" Yuffie says, slowing to a jog and setting her hands on her hips as she leans back and heaves in deep breaths.

"Yeah, I just brought a bunch of people over," Cid replies, chewing on his toothpick almost absentmindedly. "You'd think that we'd come across an actual contractor at some point..."

With a short laugh, she just shakes her head before turning to the inn, cupping her hands by her mouth. "Leon!" She shouts. "Got orders from Aerith you're gonna wanna hear!"

Seconds later, a window slides open and Squall sticks his head out, his expression an interesting mix of annoyance and exasperation. "If she's telling me that I need to make the inn bigger again, you tell her she's got another thing coming," he snarls. Yuffie quickly mentally scraps the message.

"She says to make sure the roof is sturdy!" Yuffie yells, pointing at the wooden planks currently hovering over her head, dangling precariously from chains tied to a nearby crane's arm. It wobbles as the worker manning the crane fiddles with the controls, clearly unsure what to do. Squall barks out some more orders but Yuffie's pretty sure everyone's too scared out of their wits to understand what he's saying.

"Just move it toward the building, it's not that fu -"

"I got it!"

Before anyone can say anything, Yuffie hops up on the wall hugging the side of the inn with ease, taking half a second to balance herself before jumping from ledge to ledge until she reaches the incomplete roof. Deftly walking back and forth on the narrow wooden beams, she finds the best place for her to stand before grabbing hold of the plank, jiggling the chains as she pulls it here and there, figuring out where it should go. Down below, she hears Cid let out a string of curses, though it just sounds like buzzing all the way up here.

"Yuffie!" Squall's already on the third floor, his hands up below her like he's ready to catch her if she falls.

"I got it, Squall!" She repeats, laughing breathlessly at the rarely seen look of panic on his face. "Just tell them to move it forward and lower when I say so and I'll take care of the rest!"

 

-

 

After they spent the first few days stripping the castle of its less savory components, they started moving outwards, to the town. They passed through the marketplace, where a few wares still sat out on display like old artifacts. Some foundations were still intact, though most of the town was destroyed, presumably by the Heartless tearing everything apart in search of the world's keyhole.

Eventually, they arrived at the borough, where they used to live. They didn't dwell, only allowing themselves a cursory look before heading back to the castle. There, they made plans.

Aerith turned out to have a knack for city planning and was terrifyingly obsessive over the details. When Cid came with a few of the townspeople from Traverse Town who had decided to settle in Hollow Bastion, they started work. Squall did most of the heavy lifting while Yuffie did the more delicate work, mostly doing things up on rooftops - "As a ninja should," she had remarked, rather cleverly she thinks - , though she mostly flitted around, relaying orders from Aerith to him, to volunteers when he was too busy to do it himself. Cid made trips from Traverse Town to Hollow Bastion, bringing more people to help. One day, he even turned up with Cloud, who had returned to lend a hand, that is, after a very subdued verbal beatdown from Aerith for running off the way he did. Cid even came across an old computer console in the castle and began fiddling with that, though who knew what he was doing with it.

Their work wasn't pretty by any means - they're fighters, not engineers - but it was good and sturdy, and that was more than what anyone could ask for. They worked nonstop, from morning to night, rebuilding homes, setting up the marketplace so vendors could start coming in and providing supplies, clearing the Heartless out before starting work in a new area. 

They were always exhausted by the end of the day, barely leaving any time for themselves, but with each passing day, it was like they were back to their old selves again. Aerith started planting flowers around town. Smiles began to come easier to Squall. Even Cloud sometimes hung around, sitting with them for meals. They all slept easier knowing that they were doing something good, that one day they would wake up and their home would be home again.

 

-

 

A flash of light. A hollow chime, followed by a, "HwaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA -"

" _Yuffie!_ "

" - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - oof! Whew, nice catch, Squall."

"It's Leon!" Squall shouts, more out of shock and habit than anger. Understandable, seeing as how he was just on his way into town when he saw a certain ninja hurtling through the air and rushed to catch her. "What the hell was that all about?"

Yuffie huffs, dusting off her shorts and smoothing down her mussed up hair as he sets her back on her feet. "I'm helping Cid calibrate his new-fangled defense system," she mutters like she's deeply regretting the idea, yanking a walkie talkie off her pocket. Clicking it on, she shouts into it angrily, "Cid! You nearly killed me!"

The walkie talkie hisses to life as Cid responds. "Nothing could crack that thick head of yours, kid, not even my claymores."

Yuffie fumes, glaring at her walkie talkie. "Well, take your little claymores down a notch, old man! We wanna leave the Heartless open for attacks, not launch them straight into town."

Cid grumbles, though it just comes out as a crackle of static. Yuffie takes it as an affirmative.

"You couldn't get a Heartless to practice on?" Squall asks, pinching the bridge of his nose, as she clips the walkie talkie back on.

She shrugs and replies, matter-of-factly. "This way's faster."

"Of course it is," Squall mutters flatly under his breath, continuing on his way.

"Don't worry your pretty little head," she says loftily, following behind. "It'll take more than a tumble to take out a ninja of my caliber."

"Of course," he repeats dubiously. Yuffie proceeds to count off every single one of her super awesome strengths before a bright red pom-pom catches her attention.

"They're done, kupo!" Mog cries as he floats hurriedly toward them and waves an envelope.

"What's done?" Squall asks, confused when Yuffie gasps and bounds forward, Mog squeaking out a surprised "Kupo!" as Yuffie sweeps him out of the air with a hug. Setting the moogle down, Yuffie takes the envelope, ripping it open to extract a set of cards. "What are those?"

Yuffie, her eyes lighting up, sticks one right in his face. "Ta-da! It's our Hollow Bastion Restoration Commitee membership cards!"

Taking the card from her, Squall turns it around in his hands. Yuffie watches him with bated breath, grinning when his lips turn up a little at the corners.

"We're official now," Yuffie declares proudly.

Squall huffs a laugh, pocketing his card. "Yeah, it looks like we're in business."

Yuffie beams, holding up her membership card aloft against the sunlight.

 

-

 

They focused on fixing up houses for the townspeople rather than their own. They've taken up residence in the finished inn instead, funny enough, sharing rooms again, to save space, though it might just be out of habit. But during breaks, Yuffie sometimes found herself stopping by her old home. She could never bring herself to walk in. She just pressed her hand against the weathered wooden door, turning away when the sounds of construction started up again.

But, on the anniversary of the day their world was taken, she forced herself to push open the door.

Claw marks adorned the paper screens, the garden that once welcomed visitors barren. Staring forward, she walked toward the main house. Walking up the steps, she pulled off her shoes before opening up the sliding doors and stepping onto the tatami floors of the dojo. The family crest was still hung up, miraculously undamaged. 

This was where she used to watch her father train his students, where she used to sit and ponder magic with her mother.

From there, she drifted from room to room, touching the kotatsu in her living room, the stuffed animals in her too small room, the memories filling the patches in her memory. It was bittersweet, finally setting images to feelings but realizing what once made it home was no longer there.

As she stepped in the hallway, another set of padded footsteps drew near and stopped. "I thought you'd be here," she heard Squall say behind her, his voice low and soft.

Yuffie took a deep breath, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Yeah," she managed before turning to face him. "Did you go -"

"Later," was all he said as he passed her, facing the next door in the hall. He looked at her. "This is - ?"

She bowed her head, nodding.

"Is it alright if -"

She nodded again, her fingers slowly hooking onto the inlet of the frame and pulling the door open. The lingering smoky scent of incense flowed out of the room.

"C'mon."

The room was dark, save for the light from the hallway. Yuffie stood in the doorway, her eyes fixed on her own shadow obscuring the altar at the end of the room. Off in the corner, Squall lit a candle with a controlled fire spell before picking up the lit candle and moving to the others, eventually lighting up the whole room.

Her feet moved without her thinking, stopping in front of the altar, where the framed photos were lined up. She reached out, her fingers touching the glass of each one, before bending down on her knees, tucking her feet under her thighs.

She wondered if she would have to put her father and mother here too.

Squall mirrored her position beside her before leaning forward to tap the singing bowl with a mallet. He then took two sticks of incense, lighting them on a nearby candle before handing one to Yuffie. She took it, bowing three times toward the altar.

"You know a lot about this," she noted as Squall bowed along with her.

"Same way I know a thing or two about throwing shurikens," he answered, glancing at her.

That's right. Like a lot of people in Hollow Bastion, Squall had trained under several teachers, including her father, learning a little bit of everything before deciding on his preferred discipline. "Sounds about right," she murmured, closing her eyes. She had forgotten.

She always had a lot to say when she prayed as a kid, rambling on and on in her head about every single event that occurred since the last time she visited the altar. It was always a happy conversation with ghosts.

This time, she apologized. She apologized to her ancestors for not having visited in so long, for the dustiness of the altar, promising to clean it when she could. She told them about all that has happened, arriving in Traverse Town with everyone, meeting Sora, managing to return home after nine years. She told them that they're working to restore the town back to the way it was.

She asked them, that if her mother and father were there, to tell them that she missed them.

"Do you think it'll happen?" She whispered, her eyes still closed. "Do you think everything will go back to normal, that everyone will come back? That if we fixed everything, everything would be okay again?"

Beside her, Squall was silent.

It was enough, just being able to stay with everyone like this. She believed it wholeheartedly. Having her friends by her side was enough for her to make it through each day of those nine years and it's enough for her to keep working as hard as she can now. She could even accept the truth. Her parents were gone. The people they knew, the people they loved, they were gone. She would mourn them, but she knew that they would want her to live.

She didn't need anything else. She didn't need her old home back, didn't need those years she lost to the Heartless back either. She just wanted peace, to be able to stop fighting and live.

"I don't know," he finally said quietly. "But we have to try."

Yuffie bowed her head.

But she would try.

So, she asked for strength, to bear the pain of the past and to keep going.

 

-

 

While Squall's demeanor has improved overall, it doesn't mean he doesn't get lost in the past. They all do, but when he does, it's especially insufferable. Sometimes, he'll get really distant and moodier than usual and he'll disappear for hours at a time. Other times, he'll throw himself into restoration work, waking up early to start work, looking over blueprints and making notes for future plans instead of sleeping. People tend to steer clear of him until he's back to his less prickly self.

Except Yuffie.

She tracks him down and makes him help the moogles carry around their inventory. She climbs the tallest building and waves and yells and jumps like a maniac until Squall's "Yuffie's doing something she's not supposed to" sense tingles and he spots her from wherever he's brooding and yells for her to get down before she slips and cracks her head open. She drags him out to sit on the castle wall and test out Scrooge's latest batch of sea-salt ice cream with her. 

"Too salty!" She yelps, tossing the popsicle away from her like just having it in her hands is making everything worse. Squall scolds her for littering as she flaps her hands and blows raspberries to get the taste off her tongue but she knows that as soon as the opportunity presents itself, he's going to throw his popsicle over the wall too.

She races him to the restoration site, leaving a trail of dust in her wake, because she knows he's never been one to turn down a challenge, even though he knows he'll never win. She convinces him to take everyone to the Coliseum for the tournaments, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and he does and together, they kick ass. 

She does all of these things until he cracks one of his Squall smiles, which is barely half of a normal smile, but a smile, nonetheless. She doesn't let him dwell on the past because yeah, the past was sad but the past is the past. She puts on a smile and brings him back to the present, where he's needed, where he belongs.

 

-

 

It's Aerith who senses it, a growing presence of Heartless.

"It's coming from the Villain's Vale," she says at their meeting in Merlin's.

Yuffie bites her lip, tapping the tip of her shoes against the ground nervously. Squall's expression is grim. "I've been noticing more Heartless getting past the gates," he says, his brow furrowing deeper. "I was starting to suspect something, but I didn't know what."

This isn't good news. While they can handle a couple Heartless, if there's a bigger problem at the root, they need to get to it before it can start making some real trouble.

"I can amp up the power of the claymores," Cid suggests. "But they're not completely -"

She stomps her foot flat on the ground. "I'll go check it out." All eyes turn to her and she looks back, unwavering. "I can go look around the old castle, gather some information and get out, no sweat."

Aerith immediately shakes her head. "It's too dangerous, even if we all went together."

"You know I can do it," Yuffie protests, turning to appeal to Squall, who is silent, his lips turned down in a comtemplative frown. She's a ninja for god's sake; infiltration and stealth are her fortes.

When he finally looks at her, he nods.

"It's our best option."

 

-

 

The Great Maw is terrifying in name already. Yuffie gulps, tugging anxiously on her loose navy blue clothes. Gazing outward from the Bailey, she can already see a few Heartless around the creepy old fortress.

Squall had given her clear instructions through the bathroom door while she was changing, almost too many clear instructions. _Make sure to keep to the walls and the shadows, don't venture too far in, don't make any snarky comments under your breath, remember what happened last time, don't engage with any of the Heartless but if you have to, you run back here immediately -_

"I heard you the first three times," she had joked when she came out of the bathroom, adjusting her mask. Squall's frown somehow deepened. Yuffie let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not going to screw up."

"I know," he said quietly. "I know you won't."

Yuffie pulled on her gloves, raising an eyebrow at him. "Ease up on the confidence there."

"It's not that -," Squall muttered before stopping. She looked at him expectantly. "It's just -," he trailed off, raising his head to meet her gaze. "Just remember. You're not alone."

Taking a few more deep breaths, she takes a few steps back, rocking on the balls of her feet. 

She had smiled, pulling up her mask. "I know. Your heart's with me." She rolled her eyes to hide her embarrassment before adding, "As Sora would say."

She thinks of that warmth, instead of the sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Here goes nothing," she mutters nervously to herself before she dashes forward and jumps, sliding her way down to the Great Maw.

 

-

 

Villain's Vale is impressive up close, if by impressive, you mean completely terrifying. It's like a mechanical hive of Heartless; Yuffie eyes various Heartless darting in and out of its many holes with a grimace.

Unfortunately, she's going to have to crawl through one of those holes to get in. Circling around and seeing where there's the most traffic, she manages to find a relatively unused vent in the building, climbing up to it and quickly wiggling through as fast as she can.

"Terrible idea, Yuffie," she whispers to herself, even though she knows she's not supposed to, her voice hollow and tinny in the metal vents. "You just had to go and open your big mouth."

She finally starts seeing a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Poking her head out cautiously, she looks around; it's clear. Silently, she hops down from the vent and begins to walk, slowly with her back against the wall.

The winding hallways lead to the main room but she knows better than waltz right in. Backtracking through the twisting corridors, all she comes across are a few Heartless wandering around almost as aimlessly as she is. I'm not going to find out anything like this, she thinks, frowning, looking around with growing frustration. She spots a staircase a little ways from her. In her head, several voices yell for her to stop, but she just bats them away.

What they don't know won't hurt them, she reasons, darting across the hallway and up the stairs. Slowing on the last few steps, she leans forward, sticking close to the ground as she cautiously crawls the rest of the way up. 

She's on the balcony of the main room, hearing disembodied voices below. Moving to the railing after a quick sweep, she listens rather than looks, staying away from the firelight below.

" - do you really think this'll work?" Says a voice she doesn't recognize. 

"Hmph. You doubt my power?"

 _It can't be_ , Yuffie thinks, her blood running cold. In her shock, she pitches forward, her eyes falling upon the terrible figure of Maleficent, alive and well. _But Sora -_

"O-Of course not! But those guys in the cloaks -"

"Quiet."

"What?"

Yuffie sees Maleficent look around, her eyes flicking upward, directly at her position. "It seems we have a visitor."

"Shit," Yuffie hisses before she even realizes, quickly backing up toward the stairs. All around the balcony, Heartless begin to appear, all of them coming after her. Squall's gonna kill me.

She whips around, kicking the Heartless that materialized behind her aside before it can even move, dodging the others as she bolts down the stairs. By the time she gets to the bottom, the Heartless are already there to greet her. She's outnumbered and this is literally the worst place to fight, but she's never let odds keep her from trying. Immediately drawing her shuriken, she thins out the crowd by taking out the weaker Heartless, dodging spells from the Wizards, jumping over the Defenders blocking her way out. 

There's too many Heartless. She takes out one and two more stronger ones appear to replace it. Down to a single elixir and her last few shuriken, she gets as far as she can, kicking the Heartless apart to get past them until she finds herself running headlong into the shield of a Defender, the dog's head snapping its teeth, ready to greet her with a feral grin.

 _Not so fast_ , she thinks just a foot away from the shield's gaping mouth before disappearing in a puff of smoke, reappearing far behind the crowd of Heartless and diving into the vent she came out of before they can catch up.

"Didn't expect that now, didja?" She pants with a short laugh as she struggle to drag herself through the vent. For a moment, she stops to catch her breath, knowing that the Heartless are probably going to be outside too. 

Teleportation is meant to be used for a last resort, a last ditch effort to lose the enemy, but she still has to make it to the Bailey. But if there's a swarm of Heartless outside this vent, she's just going to be swallowed up before she can even get her feet on the ground. 

Her forehead falls against the cold metal with a hollow thud as her energy leaves her with every heaving breath she takes. She squeezes her eyes tight, gritting her teeth.

_You're not alone._

Her hands curl into fists and she crawls forward, panting with effort. She has to get back. There are people relying on her, people waiting for her. There are people she wants to see again, even if it's just one more time.

Upon reaching the end of the vent, she surveys the area. Thankfully, the Heartless are as stupid as they are plentiful. They wander around the vicinity of the castle, not knowing which vent she will emerge from.

She uses her last Elixir. Reaching toward the pack at her side, she zips it open and takes out the materia inside. The materia glows yellow-green, its power pulsing in her hand. This is the last trick she's got up her sleeve.

 

-

 

"It's a wayfinder," Kairi had told her in the waterway. "It's a good luck charm for travelers. They say that with this, you'll always find your way back to the people you care about."

Yuffie turned the thallassa shells carefully in her hands. "You made this for Sora?" Yuffie asked, smiling slyly when Kairi blushed.

"I want them both to come home safe, Sora and Riku," Kairi said as Yuffie returned the wayfinder to her hands. Her expression turned sad as she looked down at the shells. "They're out there, fighting, and all I can do is wait."

Yuffie felt her heart pang for Kairi. She knew what it was like to have to wait, to have to stand by and watch as her friends fought.

And she knew, waiting wasn't just waiting. There's a strength in waiting, in having faith.

"That's not true."

Surprised, Kairi looked at Yuffie, who looked back at her with a stern expression, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sometimes, home isn't a place," Yuffie declared firmly. "Sometimes, it's people. After all, Destiny Islands wouldn't be Destiny Islands without Sora and Riku, right?"

Kairi blinked before her lips turned up in a smile. "No," she replied, looking back down at the wayfinder cradled in her hands. "It wouldn't."

Yuffie beamed then, putting her hand on Kairi's shoulder. "So don't think that you're doing nothing," she said brightly. "They're fighting for the day when they can go home and that can't happen if you're not there."

Giving Kairi one final reassuring pat, Yuffie turned to leave for patrol, jogging up the steps to Merlin's.

"Is that why you're fighting too?" she heard Kairi's voice call behind her. "To go back home?"

"I've already got a home!" Yuffie shouted back in response as she hopped up onto the platform, her voice reverberating all through the waterway. "I just want to protect them!"

 

-

 

Pitching forward, she drops from the vent, the materia glowing brighter and brighter, and summons the 4-point shuriken, the weathered weapon materializing in her hand. Detecting the light, the Heartless flinch back for just a moment before moving in to attack and she runs toward them with a yell, swinging the sharp steel and slashing through a row of Heartless. Uncaring of the demise of their own, they come at her relentlessly, even as she knocks them back and cuts them down, and she feels every blow, the shuriken still heavy in her hand even after all these years, the Bailey still so far away.

 _I'm gonna make it_ , she shouts in her head, her muscles aching as she fights the pain of every blow, fights every instinct that's telling her to stop, and fights her way toward the Bailey, cleaving away at the Heartless. _I'm not going to die here._

She swings the shuriken in a wide arc, clearing the space around her, before tossing it in the air, gathering up her energy as the shuriken floats above her, spinning faster and faster and glowing green as she pours her power into it. The Heartless recover and lunge to attack more, just as Yuffie throws her charged shuriken, slicing through swathes of Heartless as if cutting through air. It clears the path in front of her as she sprints, her hand outstretched as she directs the shuriken's movement.

Breaking through the circle, Yuffie keeps on running as fast as she can, whipping the shuriken around behind her to take out the Heartless on her tail before calling it back to her hand. Her heartbeat pounding in her ears, she rips off her mask, trying to take in as much air into her aching lungs. She has to lose the Heartless here; she can't risk the chance of leading them into town through the ravine trail. Running straight for the base of the cliff, she heaves the shuriken once more, burying it up into the icy face as high as she can. With the excess weight temporarily gone, she manages a high jump, just high enough for her fingers to barely curl around the handles of the shuriken, and plants her feet against the ice, yanking the shuriken out in one swift movement. Suspended in the air, her heart pounding in her ears, she squeezes her eyes shut and teleports, aiming for the top.

In the next moment, she hears the wind whistling, the buzzing and skittering of the Heartless no longer audible. Her energy already beyond drained, she opens her eyes just in time to see that she's fallen short, her eyes only catching a glance of the edge of the cliff before she realizes that she's plummeting back toward the ground. 

"Shit shit shit shit," she panics as the wind roars around her. Holding the shuriken tightly in her hands, she shoves it forward and manages to embed it into the ice, letting out a strangled yell when the joints in her shoulders pop and her knees smack into the cliff face. Swinging to a stop, she glances down and sees the mass of Heartless cautiously retreating back to the Villain's Vale, perhaps biding their time to see if she falls. She allows herself a breath of relief, albeit a shaky, pained one.

Hanging like a ragdoll and feeling like one too, she grip the handles of her shuriken desperately as her legs sway back and forth in the blowing wind. Each ragged breath she takes tastes like blood and feels like ice and fire in her lungs, every movement using up the energy she doesn't have.

"This was just supposed to be a recon mission," she ends up whining, too tired to deal with the possibility of her impending death seriously. The wind howls in response, reminding her that she's hanging on this cliff alone.

 _No_ , she reminds herself, her hands tightening around the shuriken. _I'm not alone._

Looking up, she can see the edge in sight. Looking back down again - a nervous laugh escapes her -, she adjusts her grip. She's scaled her fair share of unsafe structures. This is just a little more difficult.

She breathes slow, in and out. While adrenaline is still in her blood, she struggles to hoist herself up, eventually managing to stand precariously on the shuriken like it's a platform. The ice crackles faintly in her ears but she doesn't listen. She bends her knees and pulls her gloves off, stretching out her numb fingers. Her body aching, her head spinning, she breathes deep, in and out.

And jumps. She hears the ice crack below her, her shuriken clatter as it falls down, down, down.

She makes it to the edge, more easily than she expected, the insides of her elbows touching the edge of the cliff, but it's not enough. The ice is too smooth, weathered down, and she starts slipping immediately. Digging her nails in, she fights to claw her way up, scrabbling for purchase with her feet, hoping to find something, anything she can push off against to get that one good inch she needs to pull herself up.

All she hears is pounding, maybe from her head, maybe from her heart, and her shoes sliding against the ice, her nails chipping away at the ice until her fingers are just barely gripping onto the edge, her mind screaming _oh god oh god oh godohgodohgod_ and she's so, so tired, every part of her body burning up with aching pain, telling her to just let go, and she wishes she thanked Aerith for always taking care of her and told Cid how much she appreciated him and she wishes, her eyes stinging, that she told Squall -

She's grabbing at air, falling backward. For a moment, she's suspended, her eyes looking skyward, her breath caught in her throat, and she blinks because her eyes must be playing tricks in her, because for a moment, she thought she just saw a flash of brown hair and blue eyes, wide and scared -

"Squall," she breathes, without even thinking.

Except it's not a trick. Suddenly, there's a hand around hers, holding on so tightly she feels like her bones are cracking. She blinks rapidly, her vision coming into focus, and she sees Squall's Griever necklace hanging inches above her, the metal glinting in the light of dawn.

"Don't let go," Squall hisses, his voice rough, as he starts pulling her up. "I swear to god, Yuffie, don't you dare fucking let go."

Yuffie lets out a quiet, delirious laugh. She didn't even know she still had the strength to hold on. "Wouldn't dream of it."

The moment she gets her two feet flat on the ground, she crumples, Squall catching her before she can fall face-first into the ice. She tries to say something, maybe "Maleficent is back", but she's pretty sure she only manages the first word before her lips stop working too. Flooded with relief, her body finally allows itself to succumb to fatigue, her head feeling light, her eyes falling shut. Faintly, she hears her name being called over and over, a warm hand against her cheek. The last thing she remembers before she finally loses consciousness is the feeling of something soft and furry tickling her nose and a warm familiar scent lulling her to sleep.

 

-

 

She feels two kinds of shitty, one kind being the kind that you feel after sleeping way too much and the other being the kind that makes you feel like you've been pummeled, turned inside out, and pummeled again. Her eyes flutter open before snapping shut, squinting at the bright light above her. She groans, her head pounding, when she tries to move. A chair scrapes softly beside her, a hand pressing down on her shoulder a moment later.

"Don't move, I'm going to get Aerith."

Another moment, the door swings open as Squall calls Aerith. Another moment, someone, presumably Aerith, comes rushing in, her usually light footsteps sounding more like hammers pounding against the walls.

"Take it easy, Yuffie," Aerith's voice says softly.

Yuffie rubs her eyes and immediately regrets it, finding that even this simple action is incredibly tiring. "How long have I been out?"

Aerith's worried face comes into focus, with Squall standing behind her. "You've been asleep for two days," Squall speaks up.

Ah. That explains it. "I feel like death," she groans pitifully before Aerith can ask. 

"You overexerted yourself," Aerith tells her gently as she sits on the edge of the bed, laying her hand on Yuffie's head. It is warm; Yuffie's headache recedes and everything is a little more muted. "Used up all your magic, too. And you even used materia," she adds. When Yuffie widens her eyes at her, Aerith just smiles knowingly and gestures toward the nightstand, where her shuriken sits. "Leon went to retrieve it after he brought you here. We've never seen it on you before, so we thought that you must have summoned it. It's a miracle you've even awake right now. You used up all your energy and then some."

"I'm awesome," she mumbles, closing her eyes. Even listening is tiring her out. Aerith lets out a sigh, though thankfully, it's a little more amused than worried.

"Get some more rest," Aerith implores after a few moments pass, sounding suspiciously teary. She brushes her hand against her hair, lingering. "We'll be here if you need us."

Yuffie hums as Aerith leaves, the door closing softly behind her. Strange that she left so quickly, since she usually fusses when one of them gets injured. 

The chair scrapes against the floor again and settles. Yuffie lets the silence stretch a bit. "Have you been sitting there this entire time?"

It's quiet for a moment before the chair creaks. "Yeah," Squall finally answers.

Yuffie turns her head, cracking an eye open to look at Squall. He's got that look on his face, the self-blaming sad look that makes him look like a droopy flower. "It's not your fault, y'know."

His eyes meet hers before glancing away. She wishes she had the strength to pick something up so she could throw it at him. Like her shuriken.

"Seriously," she says instead, wincing as she turns on her side, "at worst, I was thinking that the Heartless just liked to gather there because it was dark and gross. There was no way we could've even guessed that Maleficent - who died - was back."

Squall turns away, his brow furrow. "I should've been there with you," he says harshly, angry at himself. "I shouldn't have let you go alone -"

Yuffie shakes her head vigorously, trying to fight the drowsiness and failing miserably. "No," she mumbles sleepily, her eyes falling closed as her head sinks deeper into the pillow. "I wasn't alone."

Squall's voice is quiet and distant, wobbly-sounding, though it might just be her ears. "You could have died," he whispers with the same bitterness she heard all those years ago when he abandoned his name.

She opens her eyes and wishes she didn't because he looks at her like losing her would have meant losing more than just a friend, more than just a comrade. It makes her wish she could apologize for getting hurt, for almost becoming another part of his past that he couldn't save. She thinks of the red wings stitched on the back of his jacket like a burden for him to carry and she wishes she could apologize for almost becoming another reason for him to continue punishing himself. 

She wonders if this was what he looked like when he lost Rinoa. She hopes it isn't. Because she's not Rinoa, never will be and she promised herself, a long time ago, that she would be strong, that she would never be the reason for anyone's sadness. 

She swore that she would never be a replacement for anyone's past.

"But I didn't," she says instead. "Because you were there to pull me up that last inch."

But more than that, she wishes that he could stop blaming himself for "almost"s and "what if"s because the truth is that he saved her. He has always saved her. 

More than anything, she wishes he could believe that.

 

-

 

Now that she knows that they know she's back, Maleficent starts sending more Heartless into town, presumably to soften them up for whatever she's got planned. While Heartless attacks are normally manageable, the Heartless are deliberately targeting civilians, forcing them to put restoration work on hold until they can get everything under control. 

Until then, they patrol around the clock. Aerith had not been too keen on letting Yuffie back into the field so quickly after getting injured the way she did, but with all that's happening, it was hard to argue. With the addition of Cloud and Cid's occasionally wonky defense system, things are a little easier, but with Hollow Bastion being so much bigger than Traverse Town, they're barely managing to hold the fort against Maleficent. If they're not out cold, catching a few hours of sleep anywhere they can, they're out there, fighting. 

Even worse, Aerith is often away, tending to the injuries of the townspeople and leaving the rest of them to fend for themselves. No strangers to battle wounds, they know how to patch themselves up, but their magic isn't as strong as Aerith's and potions and ethers are in short supply. As the weeks pass, they're forced to turn to more traditional methods.

"Is it bad?" Squall asks her as he sits on the edge of the bed, his shirt rucked up to his armpits. 

Sitting cross-legged behind him, Yuffie purses her lips, trying to ignore the pain in her head to focus on the task at hand. "Nothing worse than the usual," she replies as she stitches up the last of a set of three gashes on his back, the needle in her hand moving quickly. With the final stitch, she ties the thread off, sitting back to look at her handiwork. "Think I'm getting better at this."

They've always been very clinical about things like this. Years of living together has really gotten rid of any potential awkwardness; back in Traverse Town, there wasn't really any time or space to change separately, so they agreed on a system of looking at opposite walls when changing in the morning and night. At some point, they got rid of that too, changing whenever they needed to, not caring who saw because really, it didn't matter when there were Heartless to deal with.

Yuffie pulls her gaze from Squall's back, the skin marred with scars. Squall sighs, wincing as he carefully pulls his shirt back down. "I can't believe a Soldier landed a hit on me."

"If it makes you feel any better, there were about fifteen of them," she points out as she knee-walks over to the nightstand, putting the supplies back in the drawer. Flopping back down on the bed, she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. Her brow furrows as her head throb, the pain returning with an even greater force.

"You alright?"

Yuffie opens her eyes to see Squall looking over at her, concerned. She rubs her forehead and waves her hand flippantly. "Yeah," she mumbles before starting over, sitting up. "Yeah! I feel like a million bucks."

Squall just looks at her, clearly not believing her.

"Okay, maybe only like, a thousand," she admits, her head already spinning from when she sat up. "I think I got beaned in the head. My head hurts a little -," understatement, she's actually amazed she managed to stitch up Squall's wounds without incident, "- but I'm not sure if it was a Heartless or Cid's stupid claymores."

Squall frowns, turning toward her. "Where?" 

"Somewhere around the back," she says faintly, leaning forward unconsciously when he lifts his hand and reaches toward her. He moves his hand along her neck to the back of her head, his fingers feeling around her scalp for any bumps. It's comforting, his warm and calloused palm pressing gently against her skin. His touch has always been comforting, even back then when he was a little more than a block of ice. When they were in Traverse Town, when her nightmares woke her up in the middle of the night and left her wide awake and shaking in fear, he would just reach out and tuck her head under his chin, her ear pressed against his chest, the steady rhythm of his heartbeat enough to calm her back to sleep.

"Hey." Yuffie's eyes pop open to see Squall's looking right at her. "Stay with me."

"Yeah," she murmurs before hissing when pain shoots through her head.

"Sorry," Squall says softly, the pads of his fingers feather-light over the spot where she was presumably hit in the head, his hand then settling on the side of her neck. "Do you feel sick?"

Yuffie shakes her head, her cheek falling against the pad of his thumb. "It's not a concussion," she says, relieved when he nods in agreement.

"You should still rest."

"You too," she says tiredly, pulling away as she rolls over to her side of the bed, pointing at his stitched up wounds. "You're not doing yourself any favors by straining those."

He looks at the clock as she settles on her back, looking at the ceiling. They've got about six hours until they have to take over for Cloud. Changing into something more comfortable, Squall turns off the lights, climbing into bed and settling in with a sigh. Yuffie shifts uneasily, closing her eyes. Unlike her, Squall's a light sleeper but falls asleep almost on command, something she has always been envious of.

Twenty minutes later, Yuffie opens her eyes, still awake, maybe because of her headache, maybe not. The room isn't completely dark; after all, it's just a little after dawn and even with the curtains closed, the light still finds its way in.

"Can't sleep?"

Yuffie turns her head to look at Squall's back, his stitches visible through his white shirt. "Not really."

Squall rolls over, facing her. She remembers when he cut his hair, she had teased him, saying that it made him look younger. It feels like they all aged these past few weeks. "Me neither."

She's exhausted. They're all exhausted. She can't even heal herself now; their magic has been running low and they've been forced to conserve energy for emergencies only.

She breaks the silence with an unsteady breath. "I'm so tired," she admits and it feels too true to sound like a complaint. "It feels like this is never going to end, but I know we have to keep going."

Squall is silent but she knows he's listening.

"I just wish we knew for how long." It's been almost a year since Sora sealed the Keyholes and they don't have any clue where he is now, can't rely on him coming to help. Maleficent is bound to let up eventually, since the Heartless aren't as plentiful as they used to be, but it's going to be a long hard battle.

"It doesn't matter."

She looks at him.

"You're still here to do your best," he says quietly, "and I'm still here for when your best isn't enough."

Yuffie blinks up at the ceiling, rubbing her eyes with a laugh. "Yeah," she says, her voice trembling. 

To her surprise, he wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her in toward him until her back is pressed against his chest. "It's fine," he says when she tenses up. "This'll be easier on your head."

Sometimes, she wonders how easy it is for him to read her. She can feel his heartbeat against her back, strong and steady as it's always been. He pulls the blanket tight over the both of them and she settles in the warmth with a soft sigh, closing her eyes.

"I used to have nightmares," she finds herself whispering, looking down at Squall's hand, wishing she could hold it, "where everyone was gone and I was alone."

"I know," he answers softly, his fingers curling around her wrist and resting lightly against her pulse. "I had those nightmares too."

It's enough, she thinks with a small smile, her head slowly clearing. It's enough to know that he will be here in the morning, that he will be here at her side.

 

-

 

After weeks of being holed up with the computer lab, Cid finally gets his defense system working perfectly. It turns the tide of the battle, the claymores' telltale blips an early warning sign for Heartless, often destroying or at least interrupting them mid-attack to keep them from landing any hits. With Yuffie, Cloud and Squall clearing out the Heartless more easily than before with each passing day and Aerith no longer needing to deal with civilian casualties, they tentatively start up restoration work again but remain vigilant, keeping an eye on the growing forces in the Great Maw.

A year after sealing Kingdom Hearts, Sora and the gang return. It's a blessing and a curse, unfortunately, because while Yuffie's ecstatic to see him, his return means that something big's going to be happening soon. Either way, upon seeing them walking in town, she promptly drags the three of them to Merlin's to fill them in on all that's happened and to start figuring out a plan.

 

-

 

"Who's this little guy?"

Squall plucks the blue creature off his shoulders, setting it on the floor. "His name's Stitch."

Yuffie squats, setting her chin on her hands, looking at Stitch. To be honest, she's not quite sure what he is and she's seen her fair share of weird creatures. They blink at each other, cocking their head back and forth, until Yuffie laughs. "I like him," she decides, holding her hand out. Stitch gives her a toothy smile and shakes her hand with great enthusiasm. Squall just sighs knowingly.

"Through a series of mishaps," Squall gives Stitch a pointed look, "Sora, Donald and Goofy ended up disappearing after getting hit by a weird laser."

"Disappeared, huh?" Yuffie ponders, standing. "The laser's connected to the computer, ain't it? They must be in the computer, somehow."

Squall looks at her with mild disbelief. "You accepted that pretty quickly."

Yuffie shrugs. They fly to other worlds with a ship that looks like a Lego toy and fight creatures made of darkness with magic. She should be the one giving Squall a weird look. "Seems logical enough," she turns to Stitch, "right?" 

Stitch nods sagely. Squall apparently decides to drop the subject. "Well, now the problem is how and when or if they can come back out."

"Yeah, and he -," Cid glares at Stitch from where he's seated in front of the computer, "- ruined the goddamn computer."

"Aw, I'm sure he didn't mean to," she looks down at Stitch, "right?"

"Yeah!" Stitch exclaims in his defense. "I'm cute and fluffy!"

"See?" Yuffie says cheekily, holding out her hands. Cid groans, scrubbing a hand over his face.

"Birds of a damn feather, I should've known," he grumbles under his breath before turning to Yuffie. "Look, just get him out of my lab. With those three clumsy idiots back, I need to keep as many people who are not Leon and Aerith and sometimes you out of here for as long as I can until I can completely fix this thing."

"Have you tried turning it off and on?"

Cid pins her with a withering glare. Stitch snickers. Squall hides a laugh behind his hand.

She feigns cluelessness. "What, is that not an option?"

Cid points at the door. "Out."

Tossing a wink at Squall, Yuffie mock-salutes Cid. "Can do," she promises before looking down at Stitch. "Let's leave the grumpy old man -," Cid harrumphs before turning back to the computer, "- and go hang out around town, yeah?"

Stitch claps his hands gleefully.

"Don't get into too much trouble," Squall warns sternly as they turn to leave. 

Yuffie grins at him over her shoulder. "Of course!" 

 

-

 

When things start exploding, she knows that Squall's going to think it's her fault. At first, she actually thinks it is. 

"Stitch!" She shouts, startled upon seeing the laser blasters that have suddenly appeared in his hands. "We promised Leon we would behave!"

Stitch makes distressed sounds and shakes his head vehemently, jabbing his blasters urgently behind her. She turns, her eyes widening, to see that a hole's been blown through the wall and the Heartless are pouring in.

"Oh, that's not good," she groans, summoning her shuriken as she runs into the fray. "Let's go, Stitch!"

"Yahooooo!" Stitch yells, following behind her and shooting away at the Heartless.

It looks like Maleficent's staging her final assault. Fighting her way toward the Great Maw with Stitch, she spots a solitary pink spot in the swarm of Heartless from the ravine trail, bursts of fire and lighting and ice surrounding it. "Aerith!" She cries, cutting through the Heartless. She glances back at Stitch, though, judging by the maniacal laughter alone, it's clear he has everything under control. Sliding down the rest of the ravine trail, she dives right in, swinging her shuriken through the Heartless toward Aerith.

"Here!" Yuffie lobs an ether to Aerith, who catches it with one hand, tossing a Thundaga with the other. Using the ether, Aerith immediately casts a Curaga on Yuffie as soon as she comes hurtling into the cleared circle around her. "When'd you get here?"

"As soon as they started coming in," Aerith replies, whacking a Heartless away with her staff. "It looks like today's the day we have to deal with Maleficent."

"At least she picked a good one," Yuffie comments light-heartedly, charging her shuriken and swinging it around Aerith to keep them out of range.

Heartless surround them in every direction, all imbued with Maleficent's intent to take over Hollow Bastion for good and finally destroy their little group, the ones who made it, the ones who came back for their home. But this time, they're not going to run. This time, they're strong enough to fight.

In the corner of her eye, she sees Sora, Donald and the King coming down the ravine trail, Sora's Keyblade shining bright like a beacon. In the distance, she sees bright bursts of light and fire, followed by Heartless flying into the air. "Looks like the gang's all here," she quips.

Aerith smiles at her over her shoulder. "They can pick up the slack."

"As they always do," Yuffie says with a grin, feeling like she can take on the world.

This time, they're going to win. After all, this time, she has her friends.


	4. Twilight III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuffie is 17 years old when she lets it all go.

Yuffie stares up at the clear sky.

Her hand is still wrapped tight around the handle of her shuriken. For ten years, she's been fighting for something, chasing after something she lost.

Now she has it. The Heartless are gone. She has her home back.

"We've won," she says, numb, just for the sake of hearing it out loud. "We were strong enough. It's over."

She stares up at the sky, the warm orange sky, the wispy white clouds, and her heart sinks deeper and deeper.

"Yuffie!" Yuffie turns her head, her cheek pressing against the cold ground, to see Aerith running toward her. Slowing to a stop, Aerith leans over her, her hand on her chest as she gasps for breath. "I went to clear out the town and you weren't there. You're not hurt, are you?"

Yuffie shakes her head, waving her limbs around like she's making a snow angel. "Nope! I'm fine." She quirks a small smile, but it doesn't last.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Aerith gives a small tired smile of her own before looking around the empty canyon. "What are you doing here?"

She wants to say that she's basking in the victory over Maleficent. She wants to tell Aerith that she's so happy she can't even move, that she can't believe the Heartless are really gone, that they can finally restore their town once and for all, because all of it's true. 

She's happy.

Yuffie looks back at the sky. "I was waiting," she says instead, the words coming out broken.

She spent more than half of her life waiting. Even after all these years, a small, childish part of her always believed that the Heartless was just a curse that needed to be lifted, like something would change once they were finally driven from their world. All this time, they've been trying so hard to fix everything, back to the way it was. They even waited nine years for the Keyblade wielder, fought their way back to their home as soon as they could, worked tirelessly to restore it to its former glory, faced down the very enemies that forced them to abandon their home. Even though they knew things would never be the same, they still tried to right the wrongs of their past, like if they could, they could finally be forgiven for their helplessness. Like if they could just make it just like what it used to be, all the pain they endured from losing their home and the people they loved would just undo itself, as if none of it had ever happened.

But she knows, has always known. They can't change the past. The Heartless took away everything and they fought and punished themselves for ten years. Nothing could change that.

"I was waiting for it to stop hurting," Yuffie chokes out, tears slipping out of the corners of her eyes. "But it never happened."

Lying there in the middle of the Great Maw, she finally allows herself to do the one thing they've kept themselves from doing. She mourns. She lets go of all her despair and her doubt and she cries for their broken home, for the people they lost, all those years ago. She cries because now she knows, without a doubt, that there was nothing they could have done back then to save their world.

Here, at the end of their ten year battle, she cries with a heart heavy with relief because now she knows that they didn't deserve all this pain after all.

 

-

 

Radiant Garden. She repeats in her head, over and over, until Hollow Bastion is no more.

Radiant Garden. Something beautiful and alive.

She holds out her hand, feeling the wind through her fingertips. "The missing piece of the puzzle," she says, swinging her legs as she sits on top of the castle wall, overlooking the town.

Beside her, Squall leans his elbows on the wall. "Yeah," he says quietly. They share a glance.

She doesn't know what's going to happen next, doesn't know what to do. All this time, she wanted to live, but she still doesn't know what that means.

"C'mon." Squall holds his hand out to her, an honest to god smile on his face. "We've still got a town to rebuild."

Radiant Garden is still a long way from peace. Somewhere out there, Sora's fighting a war and it won't be over until he wins. They still have a lot of work to do, finishing the restoration of their town, facing their demons and letting themselves heal. 

And there's always going to be another fight, always another goal.

Always another Heartless, she thinks, taking Squall's hand with a smile of her own. Always another home.

They got their world back, stamped out the darkness, but in the grand scheme of things, she thinks, they don't matter anymore. To the universe, it wouldn't matter if she slept in for the next few weeks, if Aerith stopped putting weird things in her tea, if Cid made his perfect ship. To the universe, it wouldn't matter even if Squall stopped blaming himself, if Cloud beat Sephiroth. Even if they all died today, the world would turn and the sun would rise anyway. 

So maybe she doesn't have to keep running anymore, with her eyes fixed on the horizon. Maybe now she can finally walk along with the people who have always been at her side.


End file.
